Bad Doberan and Heilegendamm

The next little daytrip we took shortly after arriving in Rostock, after the kerzenscheune, was to the nearby town of Bad Doberan. And before you have a chance to think it, yes, of course I threw out the obligatory, "Can't we go to Good Doberan instead?". 

Toward the end of our time there I was pretty upset that we didn't even get to Denmark, much less Sweden or Poland, but those would've just been really short, expensive trips anyway. Relaxation and comfort were the underlying themes of the whole extended break, and I wouldn't trade all the obscenely delicious and yet still mostly healthy food, lazy days watching documentaries on YouTube, or things that we did do for anything else.

We just popped into this cafe to see if they had a nice coffee selection and to take 

a couple of pictures because it was so cute.

Quaint. As. Fuck.

This impressive 16th century church - of former Cistercian monastery, I guess - and its undulating crown of roosting birds was a candidate to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but for some reason it didn't make the list. Although it apparently is one of the most relevant brick gothic structures in the Baltic Sea region. /TIL

Love this one.

The house equivalent of those Mexican wolf boys.

This and the next few are of a museum, but we didn't go inside because we had to catch the train. Actually, I'm not sure it was even open.

Since I started working with children at the end of 2012, I've been reading kids' and young adult classics that I somehow missed, such as the works of Roald Dahl. I've always really liked the movie versions of Matilda and James and the Giant Peach, but I think Danny, the Champion of the World is my favourite book of his. I've never seen the movie with Jeremy and Samuel Irons, though.

Anyway, point is, this reminded me of how Dahl had an old gypsy caravan in the backyard of his house and fixed it up as a playhouse for his kids.

This was a super cute house, which goes without saying in any and all of the Germany posts. I kept asking Hannes to take pictures because I had a major issue with bitchy resting face that day, which you'll see didn't clear up at all.

This one burned down. With the sun setting behind it, it looks like a scene from The Last of Us or something. For the record, I just watched Hannes play it because it felt like a movie. 

I don't know jack about games ._.

At first I thought this was the Molli train we'd come to ride.

Dude's all like, "Le sigh, ze life of a German train conductor iz lonely.."

Turns out it was this one. When they say "narrow-track something or other I'm not a train expert", they're not kidding! Look how little the tracks are! Aww.

What's another synonym for 'quaint' I could use for small-town German stuff?

Told you.

His glorious flaming locks blend in with the charming wood interior.

The defining characteristic of this small village is that it has this exclusive seaside resort, which hosted the 2007 G8 Summit. 

It's such a small town that, if you walk for several minutes in any given direction, you're not even sure you're in it anymore.

Actually, when we we walking away from the resort and toward the one cafe we could find (which was, somewhat weirdly, in a very fancy hospital/clinic), we saw a lone seagull stomping in the middle of a field. I imagine he was flushing insects out of the mud or something, but it was just so fucking weird. His whole body was still except for his silly stomping feet. We stood and stared for a minute. He stopped and looked at us, then turned away slightly and continued stomping. 

Here's a fine and glorious example of one of the times when I really went to town with things I have no business eating. But we hadn't had lunch and I was really hungry! T_T

Those chocolate balls are especially amazing. It's like if chocolate cake and a truffle had a baby, and the whole inside is just strong rum. So it's called rumkugeln. Like, omfg.

I don't have any more Abrams lens flare jokes or comments left in me; you get the idea.

Really like this one.

The steam it threw off was impressive, and seems like it'd be pretty inconvenient to drive through. You can see it better in the video at the bottom.

I just wish my camera hadn't run out of battery before I could video adorable downtown Doberan!

Many aspects of this day made us feel like we were in the past, and we'd just been having a conversation about what the romantic era of popular luxury rail travel must have been like when this mofo drove by. I was like, THE YEAR. WHAT YEEEAAR IS IT?!

It pretty much goes without saying that I'd recommend this slightly obscure detour, right?